I sometimes read about an American actor playing a role of someone from another English speaking country as having done poor job due to a bad accent. I’ve read about this occurring with American actors portraying British, Australian, and Irish characters among others. I’m curious about the reverse. What are some examples of actors from non-USA English speaking countries portraying an American and having a bad general American accent? I’m not looking for actors whose native language isn’t English. I’m interested in actors attempting a general American accent, not a regional accent. I’m basically looking for examples that are the opposite of Hugh Laurie, who did an excellent job in his portrayal of House. Feel free to include performers from radio, stage, video games etc.
The just out Imperium with Daniel Radcliffe is fantastic but his American accent is incredibly wobbly. The scenes in which he’s giving a big chunk of monologue seem fine but tossed off asides end up sounding half British.
A couple from the BBC:
In the early Doctor Who episode “The Chase,” Arne Gordon played a tour guide at the Empire State Building. He’s intended to have a New York accent, but it bears no relation to the real thing, or any accent by any human being speaking English.
There was a BBC miniseries in the 70s called “Sprockets” about the early days of the movie business (a thematic sequel to “Flickers,” starring Bob Hoskins and Frances de la Tour). One of the characters was a US studio executive who was in the UK to produce films there. He was supposed to be Jewish, but his accent when he said “oy vey” was completely wrong. Sort of like “OY VEY” with each word enunciated equally instead of “oy VEY” with the stress on the second work. It was hilarious.
I thought Charlie Hunnam and Charlie Cox did pretty mediocre accents in “Sons of Anarchy” and “Daredevil” respectively. I found it particularly surreal hearing Daredevil speak in a bad American accent with Elektra speaking in a bad English accent.
I’ve always felt Jane Seymour’s American accent is a little off. It doesn’t sound natural.
We did this just over a year ago
I was about to repeat myself, so I’ll just post what I said there.
Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle in ‘Breaking Bad’. I don’t know exactly what put me off, but every time she spoke I thought “You ain’t from around these parts, are ya?” It was overacting or overenunciation.
Anthony Head (Giles from Buffy) did a horrible accent on the Legion TV adaptation Dominion.
The American accents on Little Britain were terrible, but then again Lucas & Walliams weren’t actually trying to sound American; they were putting on exaggerated stereotypes of Americans that British people have.
Being that it was comedy their accents being bad may have been part of the joke, but for all of Monty Python’s genius none of them (except Terry Gilliam of course) could do a believable American accent. In the TV shows or the movies.
Chris Hemsworth’s accent (as George Kirk) in the JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot seemed a little off.
Did you watch Captain America: Civil War? It was just one quick scene, but when Tom Holland’s Spider-Man told Cap that he was a “big fan,” you can hear the British accent coming all the way out on “fan.” Sorry, I know you were asking for generally bad American accents, but that one grabbed me when I watched it.
I’ve brought this up before – Leo McKern does a superb Rumpole of the Bailey. He did several recordings of Rumpole (for three different audiobooks companies) in which he did all the parts. Generally he did a great job. But in one of them, he had to portray a Canadian, and it was abysmal. His idea of a Canadian accent was …to…talk…very…slow-------ly. (He has an American son-in-law, but on the audiobooks he generally just reports on what he has said.)
Philip Glenister’s “American” accent in Demons was so bad, I didn’t even realize the character was meant to be American until another character brought it up. It’s like he didn’t even try to sound anything but British.
You don’t have to go that far back. In Daleks in Manhattan (2007) the episode was full of horrible American accents. The BBC budget has gotten a little bigger since they did manage to sneak a couple of actual Americans in the cast for that one. The American accents on BBC in the 60s and 70s in particular were atrocious except for a few ex-pat Americans and Canadians who made a living doing character work.
Blindspot is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I know it sucks but I still watch. Two of the main characters show widely divergent skills at an American accent. Marianne Jean-Baptiste does an excellent American accent and is a Brit. Sullivan Stapleton is Australian and thinks being American means whispering and being out of breath every 5 words. And for some reason they like showing close ups of his bad teeth but I don’t think that has anything to do with his accent.
Paul Blackthorn’s attempt at an American accent as Det. Lance in Arrow is mesmerizingly bad.
The American accents on the tv show Strike Back are hilariously bad, perhaps intentionally. In an odd bit of casting of the two main characters, Stonebridge, a Brit, is played by an American (Philip Winchester), and Stone, an American, is played by an Australian (Sullivan Stapleton). Stapleton’s American accent is pretty bad, but it’s the guest stars who make things amusing. Think hilariously over-the-top Texas accents.
Really? I always though he did a decent American accent even since the Dresden Files. Alex Kingston who played his ex-wife in Arrow was pretty bad.
I think they’re both fine. Cox had the drawback of being dead-eyed by necessity. What I thought was amusing is that only Englishman Hunnam and one other actor (I forget who) in S1 could pronounce “Nevada” properly (which most American’s can’t do; Perlman did it wrong). But by the last season, he reverted to Nehvahdah.
Laura Fraser in BB was definitely “off.”